Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Because of April Fool's Day, the April inductee into the Television Crossover Hall Of Fame is usually one of the clowns, buffoons, fools of Toobworld. But in this year when we're celebrating the 15th anniversary of the TVXOHOF, we're taking a different route to showcase April:

CRYSTAL WALKER

AKA

APRIL DANCER

'The Bold Ones - The Lawyers'

"Lisa, I Hardly Knew You"

'Mission: Impossible' "Old Man Out: Parts1 & 2"

'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'

"The Moonglow Affair"

Law firm partners Walt Nicholls and Brian Darrell were arguing over strategies for the Walker case when younger partner Neil Darrell (Brian's brother) burst in to announce he was getting married.

The Walker case was never referred to again in the episode, but you (should) know me - I have this need to fill in the blanks.

So here's my theory......

The law firm of Nicholls, Darrell and Darrell were representing an acrobat named Crystal Walker. Being an acrobat was not her only claim to fame, but it was the only one she could openly discuss.

Crystal knew IMF team leader Dan Briggs and had worked with him in the past. Briggs recruited her again, this time for a mission in the Balkans to help rescue an 80 year old priest from prison. (He had been imprisoned because he was a symbol of freedom for the people in that dictatorship.)

Calling on her acrobatic skills, Crystal and the team set up a circus outside the prison walls to serve as a diversion. The priest was spirited out of the prison under their protection and the country's leaders were left with egg on their face.

In one of the many unseen 'Mission: Impossible' adventures that are usually cooked up mostly by fanficcers, Crystal once again took on a project for the Impossible Mission Force. The details are not known, but it took place in California.

I don't want to stray too far into fan fiction, but I can make a theory about her earlier life and how she came to know Dan Briggs.....

In February of 1966, Crystal Walker had been recruited by United Network Command for Law Enforcement and given the code name of "April Dancer". U.N.C.L.E. Section 1 Chief Alexander Waverly partnered her with an older agent named Mark Slate to be her mentor/trainer. (As was the case with "April Dancer", "Mark Slate" was a code name and would be used by another agent once this one retired.)

On her first assignment in the field, "April" was able to thwart plans by THRUSH to sabotage America's space program. At the same time she and Mark were searching for the antidote to the effects caused by the THRUSH quartzite radiation projector.

On her next assignment, U.N.C.L.E. teamed up on a joint operation with the IMF and this is how "April Dancer" was introduced to Dan Briggs. He's the one who probably convinced her to abandon her career with U.N.C.L.E. and go freelance until such time as he might need her for an impossible mission.

U.N.C.L.E. accepted her resignation, mostly due to the intervention of Briggs, and she went undercover as an acrobat.

Whatever the next mission was in which she was involved, this time something went wrong - Crystal ended up being arrested; Briggs and the rest of the IMF team he assembled had no choice but to leave her behind.

Nor could the government intervene on her behalf. That was made clear with each mission on the assignment recordings from the higher-ups in the IMF: "As always, should you or any of your I.M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions."

At the time, the secretary would have been Secretary of State Dean Rusk. Well, his televersion at any rate.

The best that Dan could do for her was to hire the law firm of Nicholls, Darrell, and Darrell and hope they could pull her loverly fat out of the fire.

And that's what Walt and Brian were arguing about. Brian wanted to expose the government connection no matter how much Secretary Rusk's department denied any involvement. Walt on the other hand wanted to find some other route to take so that they wouldn't become involved with government interference... or worse.

I think in the end, Walt Nicholls won out and then went on to win the case for Crystal Walker, using some little-known precedent or some legalese trickery. The Toobworld Dynamic loves that kind of courtroom shenanigans.

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Just An Old Cowhand On The TiVo Grande

As the Trickster once said, "Reality is boring, that's why I change it whenever I can."
I'm just "The Man Who Viewed Too Much", and "Inner Toob" is a blog exploring and celebrating the 'reality' of an alternate universe in which everything that ever happened on TV actually takes place.
Most of my theories about the TV Universe come from thinking inside the box and thus can't be proven. But I've never been one to shy away from a tall tale.....
Remember: "The more you watch, the more you've seen!"